Not Noticing
by carpen22
Summary: Some memories are forgotten, some linger on. And sometimes the effects are still there. He claims the door is sealed shut but what can slip through the cracks? - Rory
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: BBC owns all things good in the world_

_Rating M because not sure where headed_

**Chapter 1. Amy**

Amy hadn't noticed it right away.

Not because she wasn't paying attention or anything, but in that short span of time between getting remembering Rory, being bloody shot, put in the Pandorica, being rescued from the Pandorica and restarting the universe a few things had slipped her mind.

And after that there was the wedding and the remembering of the Doctor. For a few brief seconds she had watched her new husband stand by himself in the corner with his head in his hand but then the Doctor grabbed her away to show her a new dance move and when she glanced back, tears of laughter in her eyes, her husband was no longer there.

Later in the evening she saw him dancing with a few flower girls in a circle, twirling with them and laughing. That brought another pause as Rory had always like kids, but never really been at ease with them. But her dad steered their dancing in another direction.

After the wedding they had flown off again. With and without the Doctor they had traveled the stars. She had been too happy, too young to pay much attention to anything else. It was her honeymoon and that was all she carried about.

When the Doctor finally dropped them off back home, she felt distracted by the longing for the stars. She missed being out there, among them and not stuck here on earth. She wasn't waiting this time; she knew he would come back and that they would see each other again. She and Rory had settled into a comfortable routine, he would work and she would well, do whatever. She felt no rush, she was waiting but not.

At first she had been really excited to hear about Rory's Roman days as she called them. She kept waiting and waiting for him to mention them, to reference in any way but the days went on and no such thing happened. He pretended as though they never existed. She wondered for awhile after that if to him they hadn't. Maybe only his memories of the Doctor where brought back. Maybe he hadn't been a Roman after all in this realty. That idea was dashed rather soon though when she happened to get up early one night to pee and she heard him. Rory usually went to bed most nights and she was one of those people who could just pass out after she got into a bed. So she hadn't noticed it. But now she heard him murmuring in Latin. She wasn't sure it was Latin that first night though. It took days and weeks of her pretending to be asleep to catch him at it. When she finally figured out what it was, she was furious at first. How could he be hiding this and lying to her? Being Amy she confronted him about it. He denied it passionately and with such confusion that for a time she was dissuaded. Maybe it was just muscle memory peeking out of his dreams or something along those lines.

So she let it go. Let those memories and feelings slip beneath the surface and waited. She waited for something more waited to be back out there among the stars with her two boys. She wondered if he would remember, wondered what he really had forgotten.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2. The Doctor**

The Doctor hadn't noticed right away.

He did care about his companions, all of them, right up from Rose to Mickey the Idiot. He just expressed it in different ways for each person. He did like Rory, Rory the Roman, Roranicus Pondicus, the Nose, Mr. Pond. He was a worthy partner for Amy; able to love her through the millennia's of waiting for her. He followed her out into the stars when all he wanted was to love her on Earth. For them to take the slow path together.

He had missed all the waiting. He did wonder later about checking in on the Roman. Stranded out in the past for two thousand years but then Rory was at the museum and seemed fine. Of course then there was the Pandorica, him traveling back into his own time stream, blowing up the Tardis and visiting Amy while praying, only it the figurative sense of the word that she would remember him, that he would come back.

After being remembered by time, there was the wedding. He had wonder if Rory's memories had returned when he did but there had been too much dancing with Pond and the other children. Hiding from her parents and trying not to explain what had really happened in the garden when she was seven and hiding from Pond herself as she tried to corner him in her wedding dress. And there was still the mystery of River Song. Who was she really? And why did she keep saying yes?

After the wedding, he had thought about sneaking back in time to visit Rory. To check up on him because the Roman had snuck into the Time Lord's heart. But then he might see Amy and then they would just end up with him again. Even though he didn't want to be alone, he knew they needed some time on their own.

He had wondered on their honeymoon though. On that ship he saw Rory in his centurion uniform and he wondered how Rory had felt about that. Whether Amy had forced him into it and how willingly he had agreed. Because somewhere, the Roman must still be in there. He didn't want to scare Amy, but he was wondering, how much of Rory was still that boy from Ledworth, and how much was the Roman?

But nothing had happened. Nothing to notice, and so the Doctor put it out of his mind. He watched and wondered.


	3. Chapter 3

_Sorry it has been awhile. Still figuring everything out. Reviews would be greatly appreciated and thanks for reading!_

_**Chapter 3. River**_

River hadn't noticed right away.

She didn't mean to miss it. She loved her father. Her strange wonderful father who would punch Hitler to keep her safe, who had lived two different lives and would do anything for his girls.

It had been one of the harder "Spoilers" to hide that she recognized him at the Pandorica. She had heard that story so many times. Had imagined it, dreamed about it from the first time she had heard. The Lone Centurion was her father. They had mentioned them. The Silence that is, when she was younger. There were always stories of the Doctor. Her childhood, like her mothers, was full of him. But unlike her mother, her stories were no fairy tales. Her fairy tales didn't have blue boxes or fish fingers. The only ones that she had, could hold close to her heart were the ones about the Lone Centurion, the boy who waited. She could dimly remember her mother whispering to her, prayers for them to be safe and warnings to those around about who was coming. Later when she was younger, some of the clerics had told her more from Demon's Run and other Earth legends. They had wondered if he would again come after her, would try to save her again.

So when she met her father in Leadworth as Mels, it was safe to say that she was disappointed. The man she had heard about almost as much as the Doctor was this? The little boy who was forgotten off to the side, following her mother about. And that great love story she had heard about? Where was it?

She saw it eventually though. Saw the way her father stood up for her mother and for her in his own way. How he was always there for them, whether they wanted him there or not. She saw his heart, how he pinned after her mother, after Amy and didn't leave her like the Doctor had. She loved him for that. He was Rory, he was special in his own bumbling way. She was happy when her mother realized how special he was too, even though she needed some extra prodding.

She had wondered though. When would the man of the legends appear? When would her father leave behind Rory Williams and Leadworth and become Rory Pond. The guardian for two thousand years. She thought it would be around the wedding. She had heard that that was when the Doctor came back.

The next she had seen her parents, it was post wedding. They were all post-honeymoon and weddingy. Amy had more stories about the Doctor and she had talked about how Rory had waited for her. Rory had blushed, shy as ever and the conversation had moved on. She had tried to ask him about it later, but he had just brushed her off. And he still seemed like Rory. There were little things though. His back was straighter and he was much neater than he had ever been before. His gaze was a little distant too. But she had just assumed that that had happened with the Doctor. What happened when you saw the universe and more than just Leadworth.

And then she had regenerated and tried to kill Hitler and the Doctor. She didn't pay much attention to her father that day. Looking back, she had had to laugh. He had punched Hitler. Her father. It was just too much.

There were moments though. Where he looked at her and he didn't see her she knew. Where even though he acted like he disapproved of her shooting and fighting that a part of him agreed with it. There was the tone of respect, solider to solider buried in there.

Later in her time stream she met him in America. He had been different even then. Rory had become a man she remembered sighing watching his back as he strode in front of her. Rory from Leadworth had never stridden. He had always ambled along at his own pace, usually following Amy. She had grinned behind his back and had to contain herself from running up and hugging him.

When he visited her just before Demon's Run. She finally understood why her childhood had contained stories of him as well. Why she had been warned of him. This burning man scared her and she understood in that moment how he had survived all those years guarding the Pandorica. How it has always been safe. He was so powerful, alien to her that she had sunk to the ground in her cell after she left and wondered for one of the first times who her father really was. She had been so sure she knew him. She had grown up with him after all, but now she was unsure.

But then when she had shown up and revealed herself to her parents he had been as she remembered him to be. Not a legend, but a man. Not a warrior but a nurse and she felt safe again.

She couldn't quite forget his face though and she still wondered. She watched him laugh with her mother and fly with her husband. And watched his face for that man that she now knew lay hidden just beneath the surface.


	4. Chapter 4

_I'm back! Thank you to everyone who has followed this story! Please be patient, Reviews are always helpful!_

_Disclaimer - BBC owns everything that is remotely good_

**_Chapter 4. Rory_**

Rory hadn't noticed right away.

It wasn't really his fault though. Quite understandable in his position if it is thought about.

That day was a whirlwind for him. He was finally marrying Amelia Jessica Pond, the love of his life since he had first seen her all those years ago. The girl for whom he had dressed up, long after the other kids had put such childish things behind them. The Girl Who Waited and for whom he had become the Boy Who Waited, the Last Centurion.

He had totally forgotten about the Doctor, well traveling with him as Amy had still kept faith in her imaginary friend. He had forgotten about Vampires and ponytails and well dying and then Romanization and finding Amy and killing her and waiting. When Amy had started crying and then yelled at her dad, he had felt his heart break. She was doing it again. Choosing another man over him. Those few seconds were some of the worst in his life, maybe not counting where Mels called him out and Amy thought he was gay.

It was the Doctor he remembered first. "He was the stripper at my wedding!" He had told his new mother-in-law. It wasn't until later that the other bits came rushing back. The excitement, he later reasoned, of finally marrying Amy and the general mayhem that is the Doctor, especially when he dances.

It was the headaches first. A dull pounding that felt like someone that really hated him was perched behind his eyes and just wailing away on his skull with a hammer. Things got a little blurry too after that. He remembered dancing with little girls, not in that pervy older man way, but in the gentle big brother way. He was an only child though. But it just seemed so familiar, so natural, like slipping on a well loved pair of jeans.

The honeymoon was the worst. Not for the reasons that one would associate with a honeymoon being bad but Amy still loved dress up and Rory never could say no to her. It wasn't that the armor felt wrong, which it did but only a little, but it was how right it felt. How proper it was to be wearing it. He didn't feel like Rory from Leadworth anymore. He felt bigger and like suddenly he was something more. That thought scared him. All his life he just wanted to be himself. He had always been content with his family, his life, his job. Amy was the only exciting, well besides Mel but she didn't seem to count that way, thing in his entire life. And suddenly he wasn't that man anymore.

Amy hadn't noticed. The Doctor hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary. He thought Mels might be a little more interested in him now that he returned home but he just blew it off as her usual hyperactive, delinquent self. He tried to settle back in as Rory the Nurse and forget all about the warrior. He just pretended as if he didn't remember. As if it was a story told to him many years ago about a far off stranger.

It was easy too. In the beginning at least. Nothing that would unusually trigger a "Roman Episode" as he called them. Except the nights. He didn't remember them. Whenever he would try and go to sleep, he would simply black out. And he would wake in the morning, not refreshed but not exhausted. Just weary and a little sad. He wondered if Amy would mention if he did anything strange but she never did. So he let it go.

When the Doctor called them to America, things were different now. He and the Doctor were, well not exactly equals, but there was a tone of respect. The Doctor respected him, aside from the Mr. Pond and the Nose jokes of course. The same with River. He had more in common with them now. He wondered if Amy could sense it. That instead of the Doctor trying to protect her and Rory, it was now both of them protecting her. Shielding her eyes from the horrors and the less than sparkly corners of the universe.

He felt more at peace too. Not the shaky, jerky out of step that he had used to feel on the TARDIS and now felt in Leadworth, but like he belonged and that he was whole. He felt himself reacting more on impulse too. He instinctively knew his place and sometimes his body acted before his mind. It helped him too, so he didn't worry or comment about it.

He did notice the Doctor looking at him more than usual. Especially after their conversation about doors in America. That was the weird part though. It had just slipped out. His mouth overridden and that was the answer that was given. River too. She seemed pleased with him more often than she ever was before, acknowledging his presences more and enjoying his company. Like she was proud of him.

It was Demon's Run that really scared him however. He had lost control but the worst part was he didn't know what he had lost control to. Because there was something that knew exactly how to handle that situation. That could step up and be that warrior that needed to be there. Rory had been pushed aside, but what had taken his place? In the end, he had retained command but there was something different about the way that other's looked at him now. He could feel their eyes watching him around the TARDIS as he punched Hitler or fought for Amy in Two Streams. He had wanted to scream at Old Amy, "Why did you lose yourself? I waited and I am still the same!" But he couldn't because a part of him wasn't sure. Didn't quite believe that he was still the old Rory.

So he waited and wondered as he sat in one of the back rooms of the TARDIS, turning a gladuis over and over in his hand, feeling the comfortable weight in his palms.


End file.
